Heineken National Convention

The Auditorium Hotel of Madrid hosts an 8,000 people capacity Congress and Convention Center

On February 13th through 15th, at Madrid's Auditorium Hotel (Europe's largest urban hotel) the "Heineken España S.A." celebrated its National Convention of Sales. The event's production design was commissioned to "Global Events" under the direction and creative expertise of Fermin Perez. As with other events coordinated by the company, "Global Events" counted on the assistance of "Jesus Puerto Audioprofesional" in the area of audiovisual production. Jesus Puerto used D.A.S. Audio systems as usual to meet the events sound reinforcement demands.

The event showcased two particular locations which required sound reinforcement and henceforth the use of different D.A.S. Audio components according to the needs of the events. The Auditorium Hotel of Madrid, with a surface area of over 100,000 square meters, 850 rooms, restaurants, bars and buffet rooms, hosts an 8,000 people capacity Congress and Convention Center. The Heineken Convention required the use of the Roma Salon and the Auditorium.

The Roma Salon, a dedicated business meeting and conference space measuring 535 square meters, hosted most of the events addresses and speeches. For this location, Jesus Puerto decided to use eight Dynamic Series DS-12 speakers mounted on tripod stands. During the evening, the formal dinner and dance took place in the same room, so Puerto doubled the speaker amount to 16 DS-12 speakers (placing eight per each side of the converted ballroom) and added four Compact 115 and four Compact 118Sub for low-end reinforcement.

The other location that required sound reinforcement was the 2,200 people capacity Auditorium Hall which, using large dividing panels, was split into two sections capable of seating 1,000 people. A center stage, from which lectures and presentations were made, was set up and behind it a giant projection screen displayed video and computer-generated images directly form a PC through two powerful "Barco" HLM X 25 projectors.

Two towers comprised of six self-powered CA-28A line array systems, used for mid-high frequency reproduction, sound reinforced the voices of the guest spokespersons and the convention's host Ivonne Reyes who was assisted by Spanish television star Carlos Sobera. Two CA-215A per stage side enclosures added low-end reproduction to the system that covered the entire area. Underneath the semicircular stage, which rose up to about a meter above ground level, eight concealed self-powered DS-12A enclosures provided close coverage for the first few rows of seats. Four DS-108A monitors provided stage reference.

Using D.A.S. Audio's self-powered Aero 28 linear array system, Jesus Puerto's company managed to provide complete sound coverage of the whole auditorium, with perfectly even output thanks to D.A.S. Audio's dedicated Aeroware software for the correct placement and angling of the speaker array system. On the Aero, Puerto commented: "...in addition, being self-powered, the systems installation results in much less cable clutter and is very streamlined as it doesn't require the use of racks with power amplifiers and all..."